


A Family of Tricksters

by malachibi



Category: Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard - Rick Riordan
Genre: Family Bonding, Gen, Post-The Hammer of Thor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-18
Updated: 2017-12-18
Packaged: 2019-02-16 11:44:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13053339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/malachibi/pseuds/malachibi
Summary: Sam does her best to bond with Alex, which results in an impromptu trip to see the new Thor movie. After that, it's up to Sam to keep Alex from getting ideas.(Spoiler alert: Alex gets ideas.)





	A Family of Tricksters

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lc2l](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lc2l/gifts).



> Yuletide gift for lc2l, who wanted Alex & Samirah & them doing trickster things. I hope this suffices!

After Loki - her father - has been freed, after the einherji go back to the Hotel Valhalla, Sam goes there too. 

Her half-sibling is here instead of Hel because of her, and they hadn't had much of a chance to talk about it together, since they'd been thrust into another world-saving adventure. 

From the looks of things, world-saving adventure number three is coming up fast, and so this might be the best chance Samirah gets to talk to her sister or brother. 

Of course, when she gets to the right floor, Alex's door is open and she can hear Magnus' voice, so she waits around the corner until footsteps signal Magnus' return to his own room. 

She crosses the hallway easily, knocks on her sibling's now-closed door, and a moment later, it opens again. 

"What'd you forg--" Alex starts, and then pauses. "Hi."

"Hi," Sam offers, and gestures uncertainly towards the door. "May I?"

"Oh. Yeah, of course," Alex agrees, taking a couple steps back and letting her in. "I'm using female pronouns today," she adds. 

Samirah makes a note of that, her mind shifting from sibling to sister, from Alex's to hers. 

It's not something she's used to doing, but for her half-sister, she's been trying to do her best. 

"Not out kidnapping dead people today?" Alex wonders as she shuts the door and moves back to sit on the bed. 

It's probably bait, so Sam makes sure to sidestep as best as she can. 

"I'm not on duty today," she replies evenly. 

To her surprise, Alex just nods, accepting that. "So valkyries have some sort of work schedule?" she guesses. 

"Sort of," Sam agrees. "We don't work 9-5 shifts, but we are expected to do what we need to, whatever kind of time that requires."

"Huh. That works, I guess. Do all the Valkyries do this around their real lives?"

"Yes."

"Cool," Alex decides, settling back against the wall. "So what do einherjar do all day?" she wonders. 

"Mostly mock battles," Sam admits. "Some of your floormates… very interested in that."

"I noticed, before I got dragged into saving the world," Alex says dryly. "But we can leave, clearly, because we did. Right?"

"Well, you're not supposed to. This was… a special case," Sam points out. "But if you wanted to make a quick trip somewhere, I'm sure it could be arranged."

"By you?"

Sam hesitates for the barest fraction of a second, and then nods. "I could take you out of here. But we'd have to come back."

"That's fine. I don't want to be gone long," Alex replies. "I want to go to the movies."

"The… movies?" Samirah repeats, puzzled. "Why?"

"I just found out that I'm Loki's child, that the Norse gods exist, and that Valhalla is real. And the new Thor movie is out," Alex points out. 

"I'm told it's terribly inaccurate."

"All the more reason to see it," Alex says brightly. "C'mon."

"Now?"

Alex spreads her hands. "No time like the present, right?"

\--

It takes a couple of quick phone calls to arrange things - first, to Amir for a cover story, and then to her grandparents to explain why she won't be home on time. 

It's surprisingly easy to arrange everything, and so within the hour, she's heading into a movie theater with her half-sister at her side. 

It's not something she would have guessed would be happening a week ago, that's for sure. 

Alex is quiet throughout the movie, so Samirah stays quiet as well, not wanting to interrupt her movie-watching experience.

As soon as the last post-credit scene is over, though, Alex grabs her arm. 

"Back to the hotel? I have an idea."

"Should I be worried?" Sam wonders. 

Alex doesn't answer aloud, but her grin makes it quite clear that Sam absolutely _should_ be worried. 

"Now I'm definitely concerned," Sam warns, and Alex's smile widens. 

"It's alright. I just want to… recreate a scene from the movie, maybe."

Sam's afraid she won't like the answer, but she asks anyways. 

"Which one?"

"The one where our godly parent turned into a snake to sneak attack his own brother," Alex explains. "I have _plans_ for the mock battle tomorrow."

It's a good thing Sam doesn't have school tomorrow, because suddenly she definitely wants to be attending the mock battle to see this. 

\--

Sam manages to escape her home right on time the next day by claiming that she has a tutoring session, and so she slips into the great hall where today's battle will take place right before the einherjar are released to battle. 

She finds a good viewing point and sits, and so as soon as Alex enters the room, she can keep her eye on him. 

Maybe they _had_ grown to know each other during their adventure, because Sam can definitely tell that Alex is male today. 

She watches as the battle gets started, every man and woman for themselves, and so she sees the moment where Alex disappears, presumably having shapeshifted. 

His likely target is Magnus, so Sam splits her attention between where she'd last seen Alex, and where she currently sees Magnus, and it pays off after a few minutes of waiting. 

One second, Magnus is ducking down to pick up a snake, and the next minute Alex is using his pottery wire to finish the fight before it even starts. 

Magnus is gone before he even hits the floor, and so, it appears, is Alex. 

Somewhere on the floor, there's a snake slithering around looking for another target, and Samirah smiles. 

Maybe shapeshifting isn't always awful after all, she thinks. 

\--

"... so next time we should both be snakes," Alex concludes later, when Sam's grandparents think she's in bed and she's actually back at the hotel.

"I'm not actually a participant in the fights," Sam reminds him. 

Alex shrugs. "So?"

Sam pauses, debating her options for a moment, but if she wants to learn to resist Loki's influence, to get better at shapeshifting when nothing's on the line, well… 

"Alright," she agrees, and Alex smiles. 

\--


End file.
